School Lunches, or What Am I Sposed To Do Without a Fridge?!

i wonder how many cooks were needed to poke the little sticks through the sandwiches ? GRIN

i do watch cooking shows sometimes - at least peek at it - , i never see anyone doing the dishes , and i've kidded mrs. h occasionally , asking her why we can't always have "a perfect kitchen" .
i guess the cooking shows have have some gremlins (heinzelmaennchen) to do all the cleanup .
hbg

here i've caught them baking the bread for the day !



cj :
your daughter might enjoy this "heinzelmaennchen" site - great fun , even for adults .

http://www.giselmut.de/die_heinzelmaennchen-sage.htm

aaww, it is cute, hamburger - thank you! Actually, I had bought her some
sweatshirts with all the Mainzelmaennchen at front (ZDF) - she used to love
them.

They're called "elves" in English when they do good stuff, Hamburger....

Gremlins are right bastids.

"Gremlins are right bastids. "

yea , they are the ones poking those little sticks (that get stuck between my teeth) into those mini-sandwiches .
AWAY with them , i say ! (both the gremlins AND the little sticks)
and bring on the "heinzelmaennchen" !
hbg

Reviving this one again -- I'd gotten away from making lunches and now want to get back to it. (School lunches are expensive and they're crap.) Will re-read, but if anyone who already posted to this has new ideas, or if someone is seeing this for the first time and has ideas, lay it on me.

Sozlet's a dream to prepare food for in general -- she'll eat almost anything -- but the downside is that she really craves variety. If I make something too often, she gets tired of it. (As in, no way I can get away with PB + J sandwiches 5 days a week.) I'd need a stable of at least 10 lunches/recipes I think.

wraps, with apple slices and sharp cheddar cheese?

I did see something the other day, I haven't tried yet, but definitely will in
the near future, as my daughter loves Prosciutto (but I guess any cold cut will do). Buy philo dough and cut the sheets in squares, mix 4 spoonful olive oil
and one spoonful mustard and spread on the squares, top with a slice of
prosciutto and roll up. Bake for 5 min in the oven, let them cool down and
they're ready to eat. Perfect finger food!

These are pretty easy to make, and you can use whatever you want - cheese,
ham, pastrami, cucumber, peppers, cream cheese and bread. Top it with a
piece of fruit and it's a perfect finger food too.

careful, might get in trouble with the skewers

zero tolerance for weapons

Oh yes, these days one has to be careful, thank you djjd. Well the cream cheese
should function pretty well as a glue to hold things together.

Another thing we used to do a lot in the winter time - my daughter took a thermos of hot water and a cup a noodle for lunch and just poured the water
over the cup and had it sit there for a few minutes and it was ready to eat.

I don't know though if you want her to handle the hot water though (well it's not that hot by the time lunch rolls around).

Thank you, CJane and djjd! All of these suggestions sound really good.

I especially like the hot thermos idea since that's one attraction of the school lunch -- it's hot! (Already plan to do other stuff like chili and tomato soup right in the thermos.)

A plonk:

http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/

So glad I logged( after a year and a half or so) in when you were reviving this thread. After a year of homeschooling and a year of the best Public school in the county I am going back to a small private Montessori with no hot lunch program....
I make them things like garbenzo fried rice ( boil rice in water or chx stock, heat EVOO, sauté some cumin seeds add garbenzo peas from a can, season, add rice stir. Also things like chx meat balls with whole grain pasta. I put it in the small wide mouthed, round ,thermos lunch box from Target. They say it's piping hot by lunch time.
One of my Caucasian friends said, somewhat disapprovingly" My kids will never eat "GARBENZO PEAS" , but I have high hopes from you. I think we need to get our kids more protien from plant sources then we currently do.
Bento Boxes from lunchboxes.com are very good for kids seeking variety and come with a booklet full of colorful ideas ..... more later

Hiya Dr. Mom, long time no see! Yep, I agree about garbanzo beans and other "weird" food.

The two things that have been a big success with my kid are pasta (pesto or tomato-based sauce, with or without meat) and wraps (tortilla with cold cuts, ranch dressing, cheese, and veggies). I also send fresh fruit every day. Strawberries and bananas are the default, but have also done mangoes, pineapple, oh and "cuties" are currently a huge hit. Very small tangerine/ mandarin oranges sold under that brand name, sweet and easy to peel.

Good news -- she doesn't even want school lunches anymore, thinks they're gross now. Yay.

Good Eats is on TV right now! It is all about children's lunches today. That is rare for this show. It's on the Food Network if you are awake. http://www.foodnetwork.com/good-eats/sandwich-craft/index.html

OK,.... Not that I really want to confess this but ...... they wont eat any sauce. When I make meat balls I use ketchup then a hint of tomato sauce, any more and it's " mooom did you put sauce. So any one has pasta recipes without sauce. Buttered noodles is the only one I know....
Same thing with wraps , the idea of making a wrap with just meat and cheese sounds too dry to me, any alternative to ranch? What is a good bread for wraps, any whole grain one?

He just went on a picnic with a friend and I asked what did you eat" turkey and cream cheese sandwich" but you never eat cream cheese in a sandwich at home , " well they didnt tell me that's what" , so I guess any ideas where sauces and other things could be so hidden would be welcome too!

I make noodles with a little olive oil, fresh basil, cracked pepper, and a little red pepper flake. It's light and keeps well for lunch, not dry but not especially saucy.

To change it up I use my new obsession: avocado oil...

Cheers
Cycloptichorn

I use a tortilla for the wraps. (Lay it flat, layer stuff in it, roll it up, cut in half.) Trader Joe's has fancy ones like spinach and stuff, I also just use regular tortillas.

Cream cheese does sound like a good option if that's more palatable than ranch.

Also, don't discount the hunger effect! My daughter insists that she doesn't like pastrami but my husband ate the rest of the ham AND the rest of the peanut butter (different times, but I didn't know we were out until I was trying to put her lunch together this morning) so I went ahead with the pastrami (all I had left). She liked it just fine! I think if the option is nothing or something, they'll take the something.